Objective: The aim of the present study is to identify the complaints and diagnoses of patients who referred to a child and adolescent psychiatry polyclinic. Method: Medical records of 763 patients referred to the Children and Adolescent Psychiatry Polyclinic at Süleyman Demirel University Faculty of Medicine between October 2007 and October 2008 were studied retrospectively. Results: Most of the patients were male and within 7 to 12 years of age. 93.8% of the patients referred to the hospital for chronic conditions persisting for a long time. The most common symptom was nervousness (34.2%). The symptoms of inattentiveness, stuttering, disinterest to school lessons were more frequent among boys and problems in family relations, unhappiness-pessimism-unwillingness, distress-annoyance-discomfort, physical complaints, suicidal attempts, habits, obsessed thoughts and behaviors among girls. The most common diagnosis was depression, followed by anxiety disorders, enuresis, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, adjustment disorder, relationship problems, stuttering and mental retardation, respectively. Of the cases, 25% were diagnosed with multiple conditions. When the distribution of the diagnoses to sex were assessed, ADHD and stuttering were more frequently diagnosed among boys, on the other hand, depression and relationship problems among girls. Conclusions: In our study, although the internalizing disorders are the most frequent diagnoses, there are differences between genders. The rate of comorbid diagnosis was found to be considerable. In the presence of comorbid diagnoses, the disorder is experienced more heavily and psychosocial functionality gets deteriorated. Diagnostic differences between sex and comorbidity must be assessed carefully in child and adolescent psychiatry polyclinics. It is observed that most of the cases do refer to child psychiatry polyclinic for chronic problems. Prolonged referral period and delay in treatment may cause symptom worsening. When comorbid diagnosis coexistences were evaluated, it is observed that depressive disorder was mostly observed to coexist with relationship problems. It is considered to be important to evaluate family relations and social relations when patients with depressive disorder diagnoses are concerned.
Key words: Child, adolescent, symptoms, diagnosis
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